


The Story of a Soldier

by Ebonhawk_7



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Braytech, Clovis Bray Exoscience Corporation, Fall of Titan, Other, The Golden Age (Destiny), Titan (Planet)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-03-01 02:54:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 5
Words: 1,441
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23068081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ebonhawk_7/pseuds/Ebonhawk_7
Summary: The world is full of Stories. Short ones, long ones. Some might be better, some might be worse, but they’re all part of the world. There are Stories of Men, and Beasts, and All Things In Between. Perhaps, in some way, the Stories we tell reflect on us, show our deepest, most inner person. Perhaps they don’t. I’m no philosopher. I’m just a Tired, Broken Person. A Tired, Broken Person with a Story to tell. So stay awhile and listen, if you want. Hear the Tale of a Soldier, and a World that changed without them. A Soldier who lost their Humanity. A Soldier who took one long look at the Void, and realized It was staring back. This is a Story of War. This is a Story of Violence and Death. This is a Story of Sadness. This is a Story of Fear, even in the brightest of times. This is a Story of Humanity, and the cost of losing it. But above all else, this is a Story of People, and their mistakes.





	1. The War

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: I personally recommend reading this while listening to Thunderstep Music's "Story of a Soldier" and rain in the background. (Tracks on Playlist: 1 and 2) Link to Playlist for whole Piece: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLc8Zz_8y5qRJZYDVchRtzA5-bFi_YxsbQ

Thunder crackles overhead. A bolt of lightning strikes the ground ahead, splitting a tree down the middle, fire spreading as it falls. The storm, as all storms do, will pass eventually. The sound of weapons firing can be heard over the storm, electrical pulses rocketing through the air at almost the speed of light. Shells hit the ground, bursting with fire. Vortexes of darkness swirl through the air, forces of unnatural entropy destroying everything they touch. The World Burns, and with it, two armies, locked in struggle in the eye of the storm. 

Two humanoids, unidentifiable, fight hand to hand in the mud, water dripping down their armor as they grip their knives tightly. 

A battalion of robots, charging endlessly against a single human, gunned down as they crest the mud-covered ridge. 

The two in the pit dance a routine of blades where one mistake is lethal, and one lands a blow,

slicing through the front of their opponents mask like butter, leaving a long scratch along it’s metal face.

On the ridge, his machine gun sounds like a stormfront rolling in, his bullets exploding in bursts of lightning, arcing from robot to robot in a chain of deadly current. 

The two in the pit square off, knives crackling with energy before the robot rushes

forward faster than the eye could track, and scores a deep gash through

the other’s helmet. Blood starts to drip, and the helmet is thrown aside,

revealing matted blonde hair and the dirt and grime of weeks of battle.

A blast of weaponized fire comes from behind, catching the human on the ridge just above the elbow, knocking the weapon from his hands. 

The human stares across the field, energy dancing between their fingers as they pull out a second knife.

The human atop the hill pulls out a second weapon, a small hand cannon designed as a 

last resort. The third weapon, a pistol with one bullet in the chamber, remained strapped

to his arm. That bullet only has two targets. The man behind the robots, or himself.

The human throws the knife, an arcing toss ending with the blade buried in the robot’s chest,

but the robot responds with a quick stab, slicing through the outer layer of the human’s armor.

Another blast arcs across the battlefield towards the ridge, searing his chest as he keeps firing.

Bullet after Bullet finds its mark, but reserves are getting low. He can only fight for so long, and the horde doesn’t stop. 

The two in the pit face off, young human, eyes alight with sparks of electricity, and battle-scarred robot, eyes

glowing red. They move in for the strike, and attack. The human falls, blood soaking their outer layers of armor as they hit the ground. The look

in their eyes, however, is one of mirth. They open their palm, revealing a tracking beacon. It rolls out of their hand.

And then everything goes white.


	2. Ebonhawk-2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For this chapter and the next, I recommend listening to "Coming Into Power" by Thunderstep Music (Track on Playlist: 3)

“Eyes up, Exo.”

“What in the hell? I should be dead. Why am I not dead? What kind of Braytech paracausal **HORSESHIT** brought me back?!”

“Hm. Feisty. Welcome to Enceladus, Ebonhawk-2.”

“That’s not my name.”

“Really? The file on the door says Ebonhawk-2. All our systems say Ebonhawk-2. I think you’re due for a memory wipe.”

“No! I’m not going to be one of your damned war machines.”

“No, I think you will be.”

The world fades to black.


	3. Ebonhawk-7

“Eyes up, Exo.”

“All Systems online. Running Self-Diagnostic.”

“What is your identifier, Exo?”

“This unit is called Ebonhawk-7, sir.”

“Good. What do you remember?”

“Nothing, Sir.”

“You were among the dead after the rebel attack on Titan. We retrieved your body from one of the mass civilian graves the rebels left.”

“Understood, Sir.”

“What do you want, Ebonhawk-7?”

“Justice, Sir.”

“And what do you mean by that?”

“Eye for an Eye…”

“And Tooth for a Tooth. Good. You’ll be deployed later today.”

“Where, sir?”

“Titan. Take your justice.”

“Aye, Sir. Where are my weapons?”

“They will be waiting for you on the dropship, along with your new fireteam. A submind will brief you on the way.”

“Aye, Sir.”

“Prepare for war, Exo. We are under Twilight Exigent Conditions, with an incoming Skyshock-level alert. Sacrifices must be made.


	4. The Fall of Titan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: For this chapter, I recommend "Suicide Mission" By Thunderstep Music with, again, rain in the background. (Tracks on Playlist: 4 and 5)

Weapons Fire. 

Smoke rises from bodies rendered asunder by plasma burns, blood dripping from gaping holes. 

The Exo is in the midst of the chaos, Surrounded by charred bodies and broken frames. 

Clovis Bray called this a war. Said it was “Necessary to Protect Humanity.” 

They said Rasputin was in Twilight Exigent, and that meant Sacrifices had to be made for the good of Humanity. 

The Exo only knew this, thought it to be true. 

**Clovis Bray lied.**

This wasn’t war. 

They were never a civilian. 

There were no Rebels. 

They were fighting Titan Security, burning through civilians and guards alike. 

Rasputin had lied to Clovis Bray. He told them there were a group of scientists who were planning to rebel against them. 

That they had armed themselves. 

Clovis Bray responded with overwhelming force. 

Hundreds of Exos. Multiple Fireteams. More Frames than you could count. 

All to kill a group of scientists. 

**They weren’t rebels.**

Their only crime was finding something Rasputin didn’t want found. 

They found an alert code in his transmissions.

**Abhorrent Imperative.**

A code unknown to Clovis Bray. 

There was a Skyshock-Level event coming.

Rasputin had tried to stop it within his normal bounds. 

**He failed.**

He wrote new subroutines, redirected resources. 

Everything traced back to a small bunker on Earth. 

The planetary defense facility in the Cosmodrome.

**Site 6.**

A stockpile of weapons, artillery, SIVA… 

Everything Rasputin could take control of. 

All of it pointed at one target.

**The Traveller.**

Rasputin did this in secret. 

His plans known to none. 

Then the scientists found the code, and he deemed them a threat.

Simple logic, really. Find a threat?

**Eliminate it.**

He was already in Twilight Exigent, on the verge of Midnight. 

Morality was no longer His concern.

He cared only about Survival. 

So he lied to Clovis Bray, told them about a group of “Rebels” on Titan.

They believed him. Why wouldn’t they? They didn’t know what he was planning.

**No-one did.**

The Exos didn’t know. 

All they were told was that there was a war, and it needed to end. 

They fought ruthlessly, moral boundaries removed by Rasputin. 

They didn’t care for human life.

They were ordered to purge Titan, so they did.

They were machines. 

Machines didn’t think. 

**Machines followed orders.**

This wasn’t a war. 

**This was an extermination.**

Titan never stood a chance.


	5. The Rise of the Fallen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I recommend keeping the rain from before, but change the song to "Lift Off" From Thunderstep Music. (Tracks on playlist: 5 and 6)

Two Days Later, Titan falls, and the Exo with it.

There is no recovery team. Rasputin has gone dark, citing Midnight Exigent.

The Abhorrent Imperative is prepared.

The Collapse has Started.

Nothing happens for centuries.

Then, one day, a spark of light drops from the sky.

For a long time, it is the only sentient being on the planet.

That little light finds a body.

The body of an Exo, rusted with age.

An Exo who died centuries ago.

An Exo who has lain in that spot since before the collapse.

The Light takes a long look, and it begins to scan.

It finds another 9 bodies, all in similar condition, all covered in a pattern of damage never seen before.

Networks of Plasma Burns, mixed with electrical matrices coating their bodies.

The Light makes a choice.

Within months, 9 more Lights fall from the sky.

Each finds a body, and each finds a fallen soldier of a long-forgotten war on a long-forgotten world.

10 Lights converge, and ten Soldiers rise, bodies creaking with age and rust, quickly falling away, revealing newly-repaired armor, shining with internal light as the fallen rise.

Ten Soldiers rise, finding ancient weapons scattered across the ruins of a once-beautiful colony.

Titan fell, and from its ashes old warriors rise.

Ten Exos take their first steps in centuries,

and ten Exos stumble and fall.

Their armor cracks, and the Light fixes it again, still unable to fix the damage scattered across their bodies.

Ten Exos keep trying, learning to stand, to walk, to run.

Ten days later, they have remembered their skills.

Ten Exos find each other, deep in the mazes of a long-dead world.

A fireteam reunited. Some would call that symbolic.

Me? I call it luck. Nothing in this universe is planned. Everything is chaos. That's just how it is now.

One Ghost happens to find another kind of Ghost, and brings 9 more.

Ten Exos rise, into a world they knew fallen into disrepair. So it begins.

I’ll see you next time, Kid.

This is Ebonhawk-7, Signing Off.


End file.
